‘Aerial images of 2007 will establish if colony existed’

NEW DELHI: After protesting the hike in power tariffs, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal on Friday trained his guns on chief minister Sheila Dikshit over demolition of dwellings in the Abul Fazal Enclave area of Okhla. The local MLA and affected families alleged that these form part of an unauthorized colony to be regularized as part of the state's plan for 1,639 colonies, thus violating the very policy of regularization.

The daylong protest, followed by a meeting at the office of lieutenant governor Tejendra Khanna, ended with the Delhi government minister in-charge of revenue and urban development departments directing officials to deliver a report on an inquiry ordered into the matter by December 15.

With Kejriwal leading the protests against the demolitions, now both revenue and urban development departments have been asked to take into consideration aerial survey maps of 2007 to establish if the officials in-charge jumped the gun and demolished a part of an unauthorized colony either regularized or awaiting regularization.

On Friday, Kejriwal protested outside the CM's residence and then met the lieutenant governor's OSD Ranjan Mukherjee. While Dikshit maintained her distance, minister Arvinder Singh Lovely, in-charge of both revenue and urban development portfolios, said aerial images of 2007 will establish whether any structures existed there or not.

"The revenue department says the demolition has been carried out within guidelines and the dwellings demolished have not been approved for regularization. These according to the deputy commissioner are encroachments," Lovely told TOI.

Delhi divisional commissioner and revenue secretary Dharampal said that demolition was carried out as per high court orders wherein DDA land acquired for development work in 1993 had to be freed of encroachments. "We have supportive data to prove this. A survey of 2010 submitted by us to the Supreme Court monitoring committee states that there was no construction on the land," Dharampal said.

Kejriwal said that the meeting at the LG House has made evident that this colony is part of the list of 1,639 that have to be regularized, but it appears that the revenue department faltered and took action without verifying the details. "The area MLA has replies to questions tabled in a Delhi assembly session which prove that the colony meets the regularization criteria," Kejriwal added.

Officials said the demolition was carried out as per high court orders wherein DDA land had to be freed of encroachments